RIA Certification Program

SUMMARY: RIA now offers certification credit toward RIA programs based on non-RIA industry courses, rigorous academic programs and experience. This competency credit program is open to everyone, both non-RIA members and RIA members alike. If you have already benefited from quality courses, there is no reason to repeat course work that can be transferred into the RIA system and count towards RIA’s cumulative certification programs.

At its July board meeting, the Trustees of the RIA Foundation endorsed a prototype certification schema. The Foundation directed Chairman Tim Horrigan, CRS, to recommend that the RIA Association Board of Directors approve and adopt the new schema as RIA’s certification plan. Tim Horrigan made the case for the multi-level and cumulative certification plan. Association Chairman Bill Warne, CR, presided over the lengthy discussion. After considerable review and deliberation, including the impact on all RIA Institutes, the RIA Board resolved to adopt the plan in its entirety.

The key point is this: RIA will offer certification to any applicant for education from any qualified source and will offer it on par with education sourced from the RIA Foundation. In other words, the RIA Foundation is on an equal footing with quality educational courses from other organizations, from colleges and universities, from commercial educational vendors, and from in-house corporate human resources departments. This means that any organization, company, college or university can ask RIA to evaluate its specific educational offerings. If the course qualifies, it will be assigned equivalent recognition and educational credit, i.e. appropriate “credit hours” that will count towards RIA certification programs.

This also means that any student, whether an RIA member or non-member, who has completed rigorous educational programs can apply to RIA to have his/her educational accomplishments/credentials evaluated. If successful, credit toward RIA certification will be granted on the basis of that prior education. The basis for granting credit can be a combination of formal classroom hours, years of field experience, an RIA test, credit for an otherwise recognized professional degree or licensure program, or various combinations of these factors. The various permutations and amalgamations are presently being worked out.

Just like any professional school, all certification candidates will have to matriculate into the RIA system. There is a nominal fee of $20 for setting up the individual student’s paper and database files. Student’s requesting their prior credentials to be reviewed will be charged according to the amount of credit granted toward certification. The standard fee schedule is $25 for a one-day course, $50 for two days, $100 for three days and $200 for a five-day program. A “day” is equal to a minimum of 6.5 contact hours. Just as in any college setting, courses must satisfy specific RIA course requirements.

If testing is a requirement or an optional path, it will be done at standardized test sites. The minimum fee will be $30. Therefore, for example, if a new student seeks credit toward a three-day certification program and desires to do it via testing, the fee will be $20 to matriculate, plus $30 for the testing service, plus $100 for the credit if he is successful on the exam. The total would be $150. Qualifying course work can come from a wide variety of sources. Some examples are Jon-Don, IAQA, IICRC, MEHRC, BOMA/BOMI, the RIA Foundation, Belfor’s in-house employee education programs, A.C.E. accredited courses, or college and university programs. In each case, RIA will evaluate the academic rigor of a completed program and offer appropriate credits towards RIA programs.

All credit is cumulative and often counts toward several program goals. Each level of achievement is recognized by a handsome certificate bearing the student’s name and the level of his/her accomplishment. Students who have satisfied the requirements for RIA certifications and designations will be candidates for graduation with all of the appropriate rights and honors.

Most RIA certifications are periodic and not perpetual. They expire after three years and are subject to continuing education requirements for renewal. It is critical that all certified individuals be subject to a periodic review so that the underlying basis or skills and knowledge can be reasonably assumed to be current, and documented.

Educational programs that originate from within RIA are subject to the same strict scrutiny as those from other sources. As a practical matter, RIA courses will have to endure special scrutiny so that accreditation agencies can be assured that there is no special consideration given the RIA Foundation by the RIA Association. It was in anticipation of this requirement that RIA formed the Foundation as a separate corporation with its own bylaws and its own Board of Trustees.

The RIA Certification programs are ultimately under the control and authority of the RIA Board of Directors. Policies and procedures are created or initiated by the RIA Certification Committee and are subject to approval by the RIA Board of Directors. In essence, the plan makes a strict separation between RIA educational services and RIA certification services. Education is supplied via the RIA Foundation, a section 501(c)(3) exempt organization. Certification is supplied via the RIA Association, a section 501(c)(6) exempt organization. The strict separation of education and certification services is in part due both to specific requirements of the tax code, and in part due to strict conflict of interest policies required by third-party accreditation services.

We believe the RIA Certification program will be a dramatic step forward for the advancement of our industry. All students have a new way to achieve meaningful industry credentials. At long last there will be a method for all courses and educational programs to be recognized for their relative merits. We would hope that appropriate recognition of quality courses fosters good will among all types of industry education providers.

The RIA Certification program has been almost three years in the making. There is still much work to be done, but the foundations are in place and these programs can move forward and grow. If you are a provider of quality education, the door is wide open for your program to be evaluated for RIA credit. If you are a credentialed student, RIA will be pleased to review your credentials and award credit towards RIA certifications. Please address all inquiries to Larry Jacobson, Executive Director, RIA, 8229 Cloverleaf Drive, Suite 460, Millersville, Maryland 21108-1592, USA.